City rejects bids for baseball complex

AMANDA ROGERS Canyon News staff

Published 11:04 am, Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Construction on the Kent Johnson Baseball Complex will have to wait a bit longer. At their Monday evening meeting, commissioners for the City of Canyon voted to reject all bids for the project to allow time to look at cost-cutting measures.

Randy Criswell, city manager, said that the bids for the project were all above $1 million, which is well above the $650,000 in the project budget.

“In talking with the architect, we believe there are some changes we can make to the design to cut some significant dollars.

“In our $650,000 budget, $150,000 is going to water and sewer, so that only leaves us around $500,000,” Criswell said. “We’re way out of the ballpark, so to speak.”

He said that components of the design may have to be removed for cost measures, although he would like to see the complex look similar to the Lois Rice pavilion and Brown Road Soccer Complex.

Commissioners rejected all of the bids. Criswell will meet with the architects and engineers to look at ways to lower the cost of the project before putting it up for bid again.

“It’s not realistic now that the project will be complete and open by baseball season in the spring,” he said. “I’m hoping we can figure a way to knock a couple hundred thousand dollars off of it. I do believe there are some things we can cut and trim. We’ll just kind of see where it goes, and we’ll rebid it. I think there are opportunities to fund it.”

Commissioner Gary Hinders said that he would like to see the aesthetic remain strong, similar to recent parks projects.

“My thought is to that the other complexes have turned out well, and I’m really proud of how those look,” Hinders said.

“Those complexes will look nice enough in 50 years that citizens can still be proud. I’d hate for us to cut back to the point that we create something where that’s no longer the case.”

Criswell said that water usage was below the Stage 2 trigger for six days in a row before hitting the trigger and then exceeding it. Commissioner Jon Behrens asked when the city could get out of Stage 2 and the watering restrictions associated with it.

“I’m anxious to move out of that,” Behrens said. “I believe our standard is low and where we set the red line is low, but that’s just my opinion.”

Criswell said that the hot weather that remains in the forecast would indicate that water usage is going to remain high for the next several weeks.

“I don’t think it’ll be appropriate to move out of Stage 2 when we see a change only in a weather pattern and no chance of rain,” Criswell said.

“That will change; the temperatures will begin to drop. That water usage is correlated to the temperature. You can see when the cool days are when you look at the water usage numbers. My opinion is that we need to see more days below the trigger than above the trigger before we make a change.”

The plan is written so that Criswell can make a change to the stage the city is in at any time.

“We bring it to you guys - the city commission - so you know what we’re doing. It makes it more transparent to the public to have you involved in it.”

Commissioners took time to recognize local Eagle Scout Tucker Carver of Troop 127. Carver’s Eagle Scout project was to built and install five benches at Thompson Park in Amarillo.

“There wasn’t any resting areas around the lake there, so we assembled those and put them in the ground,” Carver said.

“I look forward to becoming an Eagle. It’s really exciting.”

Commissioners went into executive session at 6:28 p.m. to consult with the city attorney, Chuck Hestor.

They reconvened at 7:55 p.m., taking no action on issues discussed during the executive session.

They then granted Palo Duro Equestrian Center, which is located at 5014 4th Ave., a 90-day permit renewal. Danny Cornelius, code enforcement officer, said that the business owners, Kate and Dustin Ho-Gland, initially applied for their annual permit in April.

Criswell said that some procedural issues are still being worked out, and suggested another 90-day permit to allow the city time to resolve those issues.